The U.S. Forest Service's Revised Land and Resource Management Plan for the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, calls for burning up to 120,000 acres every year for the next 10 years. The Ouachita National Forest Plan calls for burning up to 200,000 acres/yr. The National Park Service and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission also conduct large-scale burns, often burning several hundred to several thousand acres of forest at a time.

This scale of burning in the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests is excessive and harmful to the health and well being of our communities. Many local residents are demanding a substantial reduction of the number of acres designated for prescribed burning.
Prescribed fires harm people's health. These fires can have harmful impacts on native plants, wildlife, timber, air, and water. Prescribed fires also add previously settled pollutants, heavy metals, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Everyone needs to breathe clean air, whether they live in a rural or urban environment. Children, elders, and people with breathing problems or heart conditions are especially vulnerable to the small particulate matter and gases present in the smoke generated during prescribed burns. People are sick more often and stay sick longer when the burning occurs due to the increased stress on their heart and lungs. Many people are unable to live their normal lives during "smoke days". Workers suffer and business is lost when people must either shut themselves into their houses, or literally flee the area. The pervasive smoke from these burns turns away tourists and people wanting outdoor recreation. Their lost dollars and tax revenues significantly impacts the economy in our region.

In the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, U.S. Forest Service project areas that were previously clearcut, over-cut, or treated with herbicides are the areas in the forest that are most crowded with slash, brambles, stump sprouts, and less desirable species such as sweet gum and red maple. Instead of burning these areas of forest where mismanagement has resulted in excessive fuel loads, the rotting wood and debris should be left to decompose into topsoil unless it poses an immediate hazard to the public.

Where immediate public hazards exist ground crews of local labor can cut up the excess fuel for residential firewood. Piling the wood and brush creates wildlife habitat and speeds up decomposition, thus reducing any fire hazard. The leaf litter and deadfall in our public forests are better left to decay into topsoil than to be burned. Burning dumps countless tons of CO2 and particulates into the air.

From a forestry perspective, the idea that oak trees need a scarred and burned landscape to regenerate seedlings is false and misleading. Pioneer Forest, located in south central Missourri, manages approximately 150,000 acres of mixed hardwood and shortleaf pine forest. Using single tree selection, they have excellent oak regeneration with no prescribed burning. Research also shows that prior to human habitation, fires of over 100 acres were rare in the Ozarks. That is the natural condition under which these forests evolved and should continue to be managed. The Ozark forest is not a fire dependent ecosystem.

Fire is currently being employed in the Richland Creek and Buffalo River Watershed specifically to increase pasture and forage for the non native Rocky Mountain Elk. No scientific study, monitoring, or documentation has been conducted to measure the impact of non target species using this fire based conversion of mixed deciduous forest into pasture for an introduced subspecies. The smaller eastern subspecies of elk originally native to the Ozarks are now extinct.